Memorial Day Open Thread

"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we are in; to bind up the nation’s wounds; to care for him who shall have borne the battle, and for his widow, and his orphan—to do all which may achieve and cherish a just, and a lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations."

in today's NYTimes expose the reality of the way that our nation and our national leadership "honors the sacrifice" of our men and women in uniform:

Capt. Rachel Odom covers thousands of miles of eastern Afghanistan as the lone physical therapist serving soldiers in a long-deployed infantry division...the only physical therapist attached to the 3,500 men and women of the Fourth Brigade Combat Team of the 25th Infantry Division

That's ONE PHYSICAL THERAPIST for 3,500 soldiers in a combat zone.

A second article (link below) is by a veteran of both Iraq and Afghanistan.
He outlines the total inadequacy of the V.A. and reveals their deliberate manipulation of numbers to camouflage the fact that over 50% of veterans seeking help, many in desperate need, have to wait an average of 50 days before they are granted appointments.

Who camped out in DC to protest for their promised bennies. Eisenhower (much to his chagrin, as I recall the story) helped lead the troops that rolled tanks over the camps and dispersed the vets with malice. My, how far we've come.

We're all just widgets. Soldiers, workers, students, mothers...we're nothing but disposable parts to those in "control."

... then-Army Chief of Staff Gen. Douglas McArthur, who commanded the troops that dispersed the Bonus Marchers in D.C., and not then-Maj. Dwight Eisenhower, who was serving as one of McArthur's junior aides at the time.

In fact, Eisenhower had very serious reservations about Pres. Hoover's use of the U.S. Army to evict the Bonus Marchers from Washington, and had strongly advised McArthur to not lead troops into D.C. to confront the war veterans. He was pointedly ignored.

Needless to say, despite the fact that Eisenhower later wrote the Army's official incident report which upheld McArthur's conduct, Eisenhower made it clear that there was very little love lost between the two. "I told that dumb son of a bitch not to go down there [into Washington with the Army]," Eisenhower later recalled to former Pres. Harry Truman, who had his own issues with McArthur. "I told him this was a political dispute that ought not to involve the Chief of Staff."

The Bonus March fiasco proved to be the final nail in Herbert Hoover's political coffin. He lost the 1932 presidential election three months later to Franklin Roosevelt.

If he just refused he would have been dismissed by Hoover and replaced.

If he refused to give up command there would have been a Constitutional crisis of huge proportions.

There's no doubt that McArthur had a huge ego. But he was smart enough to develop the "by pass" strategy in the Pacific that isolated many Japanese controlled islands and saved thousands of US soldiers. And his occupation of Japan was brilliant and allowed the founding of a modern day democracy.

His Korean war strategy was equally brilliant and his end run around the enemy broke their back and if China had not entered the war would have been over.

Many, as I do, think that we should have used nuclear weapons to stop the Chinese and that had we done so the Cold War would have been greatly shortened and Vietnam would not have happened.

His public quarrel with Truman, who was convinced that McCarthur wanted to run against him for President, resulted in Truman firing him.

His farewell address at West Point is one of the greatest in history:

"The shadows are lengthening for me. The twilight is here. My days of old have vanished, tone and tint. They have gone glimmering through the dreams of things that were. Their memory is one of wondrous beauty, watered by tears, and coaxed and caressed by the smiles of yesterday. I listen vainly, but with thirsty ears, for the witching melody of faint bugles blowing reveille, of far drums beating the long roll. In my dreams I hear again the crash of guns, the rattle of musketry, the strange, mournful mutter of the battlefield. But in the evening of my memory, always I come back to West Point. Always there echoes and re-echoes: Duty, Honor, Country. Today marks my final roll call with you, but I want you to know that when I cross the river my last conscious thoughts will be of The Corps, and The Corps, and The Corps. I bid you farewell."

Sometimes, there's really not much to say about something beyond what's already been acknowledged and said, as you did above. Nobody said that life was fair. Reality bites, dude, just as it always has and always will.

Speaking as the son of someone who was killed in the Vietnam War, I already volunteer out here on the governor's special advisory council on veterans' affairs, trying to cajole Washington to open up the budgetary purse strings to fulfill out nation's professed commitments to our veterans. With state funds, we've already opened up the U.S. Veterans' Center at Kalaeloa (Barber's Point) in West Oahu to get homeless veterans off the streets and into housing, and get them job training if needed.

The question is really, then, what are YOU personally prepared to do about "today's ugly reality" -- that is, besides constantly complaining here about it?

If you're truly concerned with the plight of our service members and military veterans, then put some skin in the game, and get involved personally to make a difference. Go b*tch at the Republicans in Congress who are responsible for the current underfunding of the U.S. Dept. of Veterans Affairs, and not at the rest of us.

you got from Rojas, ugly in its own way is the assumption you always trot out that what this person or that person expresses on this blog - I believe you usually refer to it as "whining and complaining" - is the sum total of their effort; just because he/she isn't constantly reminding us of his/her activities and accomplishments doesn't mean none have been undertaken.

It would behoove you to remember that once in a while; not everyone has made or has been able to make public service a career, but it doesn't mean that whatever people can do, and have done, isn't valuable in its own way. People write, e-mail, fax, knock on doors, call, join advocacy groups, work within their local political organizations - and they are not required to provide proof of these kinds of activities to you or anyone else in order to have their opinions deemed credible.

... whatever it is that you're doing, so that they're encouraged to emulate your example and do the same. Whether you've written a congressman, or testified at city council hearing, or volunteered to serve on a local school board or water commission, don't be shy about sharing your experiences and suggestions, and asking others to do the same if the issue you're working on requires others to weigh in.

That's not bragging. Rather, that's exactly how you and lentinel and I and others here can make things happen politically at the grassroots level, by encouraging mass and concerted action.

I'm sorry, but simply commenting on a website about how awful this person or or that story is -- or how wonderful they are, for that matter -- and then expecting everyone else to chime in with a chorus of amens and hallelujahs, well, that really doesn't amount to much. Very little is going to be accomplished when we're reducing ourselves to the online equivalent of letters to the editor.

I'd like to believe that, given the generally high caliber of intellect that's present here, that we can perhaps motivate each other to actually do something that can make a real difference. Political complacency is often the general public's own biggest obstacle, and the powers-that-be thrive on such self-induced paralysis.

It's not that I think I'm special, because I'm obviously not. I just want to show people through my own examples that it's really not as difficult to get involved as they might initially believe it to be. That's why I share what I'm doing and try to offer occasional suggestions regarding political activity, in the hope that others will say, "Hey, you know, I can do that, too."

I'm sorry Donald. I lost my mom when I was young and not to government lies and actions and conflicts. I don't think that anyone can understand what you grew up without and how much of that you spent on your own, by yourself like it or not. And it was all taken from you in the Vietnam conflict, something that tore our nation apart because why we were there was not clear and the danger based on lies.

I used to feel certain that if my husband was killed in Iraq I would lose my mind, I would not know what to tell my children other than a bunch of powerful oil men told a bunch of lies, outed CIA agents to punish those who would not go along, and killed your dad trying to take over an oil rich nation. I'm so glad I never had to try to figure that all out. Some children and their families are not so fortunate. I'm glad they have you in some forms and your input.

Rather than the Army, led by its Chief of Staff, General Douglas MacArthur (with dissent from Dwight Eisenhower, his aide at the time) to burn the camps and shacks of the World War I Veterans and drive them out with sabers and the cavalry, we have battle-equipped, paramilitary police to destroy tents and officers such as NYC's Tony Bologna, wielding pepper-spray to deal with protestors.

But, it will take some to top that treatment of veterans: In 1925, Congress voted to award WWI veterans a lump sum bonus for their service, to be paid twenty-years later, in 1945. As the Great Depression worsened, in 1932, veterans groups organized and lobbied Congress for immediate payment. Representative Wright Patman (D. TX) introduced a bill for payment at that time, but House Republicans held it up.

Veterans around the country converged on DC to directly lobby Congress, getting to DC by "riding the rails," walking and whatever means possible. They set up camps and shacks. Patman got the House bill passed but it failed in the Senate. The "Bonus Marchers" continued to lobby and remained peaceful. When Congress adjourned, the Hoover Administration wanted them to go home, and passed a bill to pay their way back (to be deducted from the bonus coming in 1945).

The DC police seemed to have the situation under control, but it was an embarrassment to Hoover and fears were fanned for "communists" and that incipient revolution was in the air. So the veterans had to go, and the Army, with MacArthur in the lead, on August 28, 1932, ran about 10,000 veterans out of town, burning their shacks, tear gassing everyone in sight, with the force of tanks in reserve.

Some jerk Texas judge decided to make an example of a high school student who's been missing too much school. He ordered her jailed overnight. She's not a delinquent, just an exhausted honor student who works a full-time job and a part-time job to help provide for siblings.

... a working weekend for us, as we were cooped up inside the Sheraton Ballroom or various committee meeting rooms. The weather was gorgeous whenever we took a break and went outside, and the evenings were actually quite pleasant.

I will say, though, that I find the steep markup for Waikiki stores versus the rest of Honolulu to be rather outrageous. I mean, is it really necessary to charge tourists $2.50 for a cup of coffee at Starbuck's down at the Royal Hawaiian Shopping Center and elsewhere in Waikiki, when the rest of us pay only $1.75 for the same cup at those Starbucks' stores located outside the resort district?

That sort of greedy price-gouging serves only to remind us locals why we don't come down to Waikiki.

It's hard to ignore Waikiki as a tourist, because that's where 90% of the hotel rooms are on the island, but I do urge our visitors to get outside the resort district and explore the rest of Oahu. For my money, the nicest beach is not Waikiki, but over in Kailua over on the windward side of the island, about 18 miles north of Waikiki. This is where the Obamas stay when they're visiting family and friends during the Christmas holidays, and for good reason.

(The president's sister Maya lives a couple of miles from us in east Honolulu, and was also a delegate at this weekend's convention.)

My favorite island is Kaui. Spent a lot of time there in the 80's. There was a Sheraton in Kappa that was absolutely fantastic and I never met a local anyplace on the island that was anything but super friendly and nice. Not so true on Oahu.

If expense money was tight I'd stay at the Holiday Inn near the Oahu airport. We had a warehouse there with great employees and zero problems. They dug this salesman out of many of his self made problems.

... has a population of one million people. The City & County of Honolulu comprises the entire island. We're actually the 12th largest single municipality in the United States, and despite our tropical locale and the best efforts of the Hawaii Visitors & Convention Bureau, we're undoubtedly going to have some of the same problems that afflict big cities everywhere, one of which is the surliness of stressed urbanites.

The Holiday Inn by the airport is still there, Jim, albeit with a different owner and name. It's now called the Ohana Hotel at Honolulu Airport. The staff there is still super-friendly and courteous, they have good meeting facilities for business travelers, and it's a nice, clean place with reasonable rates.

I work with the Hawaii Primary Care Association, which represents community health centers, and we frequently schedule meetings and symposiums at the Ohana-Airport because it's very convenient for neighbor islanders, who can practically walk to the hotel from their arrival gate at the interisland terminal, and don't have to rent a car.

... an insult to one's intelligence. Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter is almost enough to make me long for the comforting days of the Cold War, if only to shield us from Russian-directed claptrap like this.

... fictionalized account of our 16th president is the one authored by Gore Vidal, Lincoln.

A meticulous researcher and historian, Vidal deftly humanized Abraham Lincoln in three dimensions, while managing to avoid the hagiographical pitfalls that have compromised so much of what has already been written about him.

Thus, what we get in Lincoln is not a two-dimensional American demigod, but a psychologically complex yet highly sympathetic character with very real human flaws, who rose to the occasion as his times demanded to accomplish some truly extraordinary things for our country.

... chicken pox, an outbreak of shingles will generally confine itself to one specific band of nerves, usually on one side of the body from front to back. You cannot get shingles unless you've already had chicken pox.

Because the varicella virus (the mother ship for chicken pox and shingles) inflames nerve endings, the blisters will be very, very painful. Now, I have a high threshold of pain so that when I had shingles ten years ago, I got by on aspirin when needed. However, everybody's body chemistry is different, and if it gets too painful for you to bear, particularly at night, don't be shy about consulting your doctor to get some sort of mild narcotic like Vicodin, which can alleviate the pain and allow you to get some sleep.

You just have to let shingles run its course, and the painful part is anywhere from ten days to three weeks, from the initial outbreak until when the last blister scabs over. Get plenty of rest, and just like chicken pox, do not scatch the blisters, sores and scabs, because you'll create pock mark scars.

Further, please don't go out in public while the virus is still in the active breakout stage, because people who have never had chicken pox (or have been vaccinated for it) can actually catch that disease from you during this short window of viral opportunity, while your blisters are still forming and scabbing over. Once you stop breaking out, the contagious period is considered passed.

The varicella virus is an active airborne contagion, and while its effects upon children can often be relatively mild, chicken pox is potentially deadly to adults because it can severely compromise the mature immune system in a relatively short period of time, leading to attendant complications like pneumonia.

Please? (And no offense, since I realize this as a joke of questionable taste. I blame the Vicodin.)

Thanks for the insight. It's funny, because I actually diagnosed myself a few hours before going into the ER. Tbere I merely had my diagnosis confirmed. Only needed the doc for the scripts. I think my case is fairly mild, thankfully -- at least from some of the pics I saw when I was researching. Still, hurts like hell and just sucks all around.

Shingles is really nasty. I wish I had some remedy, but I don't. I was one of those people who had it, and then about 3 yrs later, got it again. They have a vaccine out now, but I don't know if it can shorten an occurance.

limited value to you at this point. But it is a good idea for adults to get vaccinated (Zostavax) owing to the vulnerability for those who have had chickenpox. The vaccine is reasonably effective and reduces the painful period if shingles is contracted.

Sounds like you are doing everything that there is to be done which is mostly symptomatic treatment--pain and anti-inflamatory medicine (if the pain is not too great, Aleve may work and is easier on the kidneys ). Acyclovir, the antiviral, is of value now and will help stave off complications, such as post-herpetic neuralgia, which involves pain after blisters leave. The use of steroids should be avoided--at best their use is controversial. Home remedies are as many as there are homes--Calamine Lotion to cut down itching, keep the areas uncovered, open to air. Probably anything that makes you feel a little better while it runs its course.

for the vaccine after you personally pay the $200 and then send in a claim. It was actually easy to find and download the form from Medicare. You need all the paperwork and the actual vaccine sticker from the bottle. They paid $135.

I had a bout maybe 6 or 7 years ago - a small patch on my upper chest and another spot on my back. I described it as " imagine that your skin is on fire and there are hot needles being poked into it at the same time."

I got on the Zovirax pretty quickly, and I guess that helped with duration and severity, but it was hell.

My husband got a case on his face, close enough to his eyes that the VA gave him a thorough going-over, plus meds.

The U.S. stands on the precipice of a financial disaster, and Congress has done nothing but bicker. Of course, I refer to the coming day when the undead walk the earth, feasting on the living. A zombie apocalypse will create an urgent need for significant government revenues to protect the living, while at the same time rendering a large portion of the taxpaying public dead or undead. The government's failure to anticipate or plan for this eventuality could cripple its ability to respond effectively, putting us all at risk.

This article fills a glaring gap in the academic literature by examining how the estate and income tax laws apply to the undead. Beginning with the critical question whether the undead should be considered dead for estate tax purposes, the article continues on to address income tax issues the undead are likely to face. In addition to zombies, the article also considers how estate and income tax laws should apply to vampires and ghosts. Given the difficulties identified herein of applying existing tax law to the undead, new legislation may be warranted. However, any new legislation is certain to raise its own set of problems. The point here is not to identify the appropriate approach. Rather, it is to goad Congress and the IRS into action before it is too late.

good news we can scrounge up about our dear Cubbies. I'd say that things could be worse, but that would be a lie. The Cubs now own the National League cellar.

C'mon, Theo Epstein, show us a little of that baseball magic you worked to get the Red Sox their World Series rings. I am not a young woman, and I would very much like for the Cubs win the WS in my lifetime.

My dad lived to 82 and he never saw it. I have no reason to believe I will be any different! I just marvel at people that get to experience it many times over a lifetime, like Yankees fans. Do they take it for granted? sigh.

when I heard about that book - sacrilege!!! But I have friends who have read it and say it is really entertaining. I may have to read it and see the movie. If the trailer does not completely turn me off.

This is a controversial decision. Those who support the revision say it will provide a more accurate diagnostic tool and eliminate the chance that children who may have, say, a communications problem, get diagnosed as autistic. Aspergers falls on the current autism spectrum, but may not make the cut.

Currently, if the wee lad does have Aspergers, he falls under the Americans with Disabilities Act. That means his school district must provide him with the help he needs to be successful in school.

Even though it is the law, not all schools want to comply. It costs them money to provide for Aspergers kids, as well as others on the autism spectrum.

You know, Zorba worked with special education kids. She might be a good resource for you. I'd send her an email. Do you still have her email addy?